One of the largest sideline/dugout reporting controversies in a while came from the National League Division Series between the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers this week. There, the Padres banned Fox sideline reporter Ken Rosenthal from their dugout ahead of Game 3 Tuesday. And there’s a change to Fox’s MLB Postseason broadcasting plans for Game 5 Friday, and one that many are discussing as potentially related to this.
That would be Tom Verducci joining Rosenthal as a sideline reporter, as Puck’s John Ourand noted Friday:
Before discussing the new move, it’s worth looking at what led to it. The ban Tuesday came following a column Rosenthal wrote for his other job at The Athletic Tuesday, based on events in Sunday’s Game 2. That column , titled “The ‘Sinister Sling’ and the multitudes of Manny Machado,” went off on the Padres’ Machado for a throw toward the Dodgers’ dugout in Game 2. And it featured a lot of harsh language, from claiming Machado had a “punkish” response to calling Fernando Tatís Jr. “a smiling, dancing peacock” and saying Jurickson Profar was “the kid who pulls the fire alarm at school and then asks, ‘Who, me?'”
That led to a one-game ban of Rosenthal from the Padres’ dugout (leading to him providing a pre-game report from on the field instead of the dugout Tuesday night), as per Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune . And while Acee’s piece noted the ban was only expected to be for one game, it’s unclear if that was indeed the case. The Dodgers blew out the Padres 8-0 Wednesday, and Rosenthal’s only interviews on that broadcast were with Los Angeles players Will Smith and Max Muncy.
That may well have been an editorial decision from Rosenthal and/or Fox’s producing and directing team based on the game, or it may have reflected some further awkwardness around him and the Padres.
And that’s what has this Verducci move worth more discussion than the usual tagging in of a second reporter would have produced. Consider the piece Ourand linked, which is what he wrote on this Thursday. It’s titled “The War of the Rosenthal Column” (or, in an alt headline, “Why Are the Padres So Mad at Ken Rosenthal?”). And while a fair bit of that is a recap of the saga so far, it has interesting comments on how other teams haven’t allowed reporters in their dugouts at all, and a note that Rosenthal might be assigned to cover the Mets in the NLCS if the Padres advance:
Alas, the idea that the Padres barred Rosenthal from the dugout during a playoff game hardly qualifies as news. Teams don’t have to allow networks to embed any reporter in a dugout, and several teams, including the Yankees and Mets, haven’t allowed reporters in the dugout at all this postseason. Major League Baseball has strict rules around media availability, especially during the playoffs, but it does not mandate that teams have to allow reporters in the dugout during the game. As such, my baseball sources say that the league has no plans to get involved in this dispute. Why would they?
…Fox also has a roster of talent who can step in and conduct interviews if a team decides en masse not to talk to Rosenthal, from announcers in the booth to analysts on the pre- and postgame sets. The Padres seemed happy enough to talk to Joe Davis or John Smoltz. And, starting in the next round, Fox will assign Tom Verducci, who also writes for SI, to accompany Rosenthal on the sidelines. If the Padres win on Friday, Fox might have Rosenthal cover the Mets.
Amidst all that, there are a lot of potential ways to read this Verducci move. It can be seen as completely unrelated to Rosenthal’s column and the Padres’ reaction, and just a way to get another prominent Fox talent in Verducci involved. Or it can be seen as a specific way to avoid Rosenthal-Padres awkwardness, as many theorists on r/MLB and respondents to Ourand’s tweet have opined.
At any rate, it means we probably won’t see much between Rosenthal and San Diego players Friday.
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